P. J. just telling stories

With a new album under her belt, the unpredictable one of music writing is heading to Australia to headline Splendour in the Grass 2004 at Byron Bay, Jane Rocca writes.

There is something about P. J. Harvey that is wickedly perplexing. From the outside she looks frail and quiet an ordinary girl who still lives in Dorset , England, where she grew up. But she's also the raven-haired beauty who once dated Nick Cave , a woman whose voice can swerve from screaming to wailing in the same bittersweet breath.

But it's Harvey's unpredictability that keeps her an intriguing distance from the rest. And let's not overlook the other idiosyncrasies which add to her appeal: those huge lips she paints red and the black kohl eye make-up that hit cult status in the mid 1990s.

P. J. Harvey is about to release her seventh studio album Uh Huh Her , four years on from the successful release of Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea in 2000. This time it's more about fictitious storytelling than leaving wounds open for others to lick.

Sitting inside the Montmartre Cafe in West Hollywood , Harvey is far more petite than she appears in magazines; she's wearing a cotton singlet and fitted black pants and is boyishly built. You immediately notice her protruding green eyes, her thin lanky arms and an overall gentle disposition. She is shy and very measured when answering questions, all done while sipping herbal tea with soy milk on the side.

She sporting a new haircut but the singer insists it wasn't a fashion-related decision. "It was sort of starting to fall out," Harvey said. "I am anaemic and become quite stressed easily. My grandmother died last year so it was a culmination of things which led to it."

On first listen, Uh Huh Her is slow and dark, especially the opening track The Life And Death Of Mr Badmouth , but Harvey is a little confused about why she is perceived as the black beauty in the music writing stakes.

"I don't think of my music as morbid or sad," she said. "I think the enormous mistake [is] that everyone assumes that these songs are a diary of my life. Why can't people just accept the fact that I am a creative artist? Sure, emotions come through me, but there is no way that I experience everything I write about. I am a fictional writer."

Harvey has every right to defend herself, but the inferences are hard to avoid when a female artist sings about love and its let-downs, has song titles such as The Darker Days Of Me & Him and The End . But these days Harvey has a new boyfriend and is feeling satisfied with life.

Uh Huh Her was recorded at Harvey's home in Britain on an 8-track , with longtime friend Rob Ellis helping on drums and percussion.

"I saw no reason to re-create what I had done at home as I was happy with it," she said.

Before arriving at Byron Bay for her one-off performance at the Splendour in the Grass 2004 festival in July , Harvey will perform at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona in May, and the Glastonbury Festival in England and Le Zenith in Paris in June.

"I would like to come out and do the Big Day Out again," she said. "I always have a wonderful time in Australia."

Harvey said she previewed some of the new songs on this album at the Big Day Out last year. The first single, The Letter, is a gentle introduction to the album's variety. There are melodic up-beat moments in Cat On The Wall and slower-moving ballads such as The Slow Drug .

"There is a lot of beauty on this album," said Harvey, who explained she often wrote from the fictional point of view of a femme fatale. But she continually shies away from associating herself with a dark side. "People always say that Nick Cave's work is dark or Steve Albini (Nirvana /P. J. Harvey producer) is dark. People have this notion that there are melancholy or angry people within us and that idea is only formed with the media usually."

As a child, she always wanted to be a veterinary surgeon, but chose music instead after delving into her personal diaries to become a songwriter.

"We lived on a farm and I had a natural leaning to nursing and looking after animals and birthing lambs. I had a very hands-on childhood," she said.

Harvey is very close to her mum and dad who live in Dorset. She has a brother who is married with four boys, making her a fond aunt as well.

"It is very set back in time, that part of the world. Families stay near each other and share a responsibility for the kids and I love it being that way."

So does Harvey ever feel the need to build on the family tree?

"I just take what comes along," she said. "I am a fatalist and if that were to happen I would embrace it and if it weren't going to happen I would embrace it too. I have never felt real maternal urges but, having said that, if that comes along then I will follow it. Right now I am happy to be in a field that allows me the ability to leave something behind and have it celebrated."